Mahale Mountains National Park

Some of Africa’s last wild chimpanzees leap from branch to branch in this remote 623-squaremile (1,613-km2) national park just to the south of Gombe (see above), where Dr. Jane Goodall did her pioneering studies. Some 700 to 1,000 of them live in a 40-square-mile (100-km2) forest on the Kungwe Ridge, and about 100 of them have been habituated to human visitors by way of a 20-year study by a team of Japanese scientists. There are also lions and leopards, elephants, bushbucks, brush-tailed porcupines, red-legged sun squirrels, and other primates including black-and-white and red colobus monkeys, and olive baboons. A visit here by surface transport is fascinating but involves a long boat trip. Air charters can be arranged. There are several luxury tented lodges. Best time: May–October dry season.

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